Ebola and Marburg Virus-Like Particles Activate Human Myeloid Dendritic Cells

摘要

The filoviruses, Ebola (EBOV) and Marburg (MARV) viruses are potential global threats and cause deadly hemorrhagic fevers. Although, both EBOV and MARV exponentially replicate in dendritic cells (DCs), these viruses do not elicit cytokine secretion and fail to activate and mature infected DCs. Here, we employed virus-like particles (VLP) of EBOV and MARV to investigate whether these genome-free particles maintain similar immune evasive properties as native filoviruses. Confocal microscopy indicated that human myeloid-derived DCs readily took up the VLPs. However, unlike EBOV and MARV, the VLPs induced changes in DCs to include, upregulation of co-stimulatory molecules (CD40, CD80 and CD86) as well as MHC receptors and CD83. VLPs also elicited secretion of a variety of pro-inflammatory cytokines, specifically TNF-alpha, IL-8, IL-6 and MIP-Ialpha. Thus, our findings suggest that unlike EBOV and MARV, the VLPs are effective stimulators of DCs and thus may show strong potential in enhancing innate and specific adaptive immune responses.